Handicapped shower ideas

[James Spillman]

I have trouble getting into our shower. I'm handicapped. The 4" step is too high for me to negotiate. I would like to get a new shower that I don't have to lift my leg to step into. The problem is that the present shower fits into an area that is only 40" x 40". When I look for accessible showers it seems like they are mostly 40"x60". The bathroom is too small for such a shower. If you know of any manufacturers that make compact showers that would fit this space I would sure like to know where I could get one. Thanks.

[roger wiegand]

A good tile guy should be able to convert your existing shower to a sill-less design. It will be a bit of a mess, as they will probably have to take out and re-shape the existing pan to slope to a linear drain, and depending on what the current floor is outside the shower that may need re-working as well. "Accessible" showers assume meeting the rules for wheelchair access, hence the size.

You may want to consider a more extensive remodel to make space for a chair if you think you or someone in your house might ever need it. Converting your shower will be a big enough job that expanding it at the same time probably won't add appreciably to the cost if you have the space.

The extent to which US home designers ignore the inevitability of aging is rather disheartening.

[Gary Ragatz]

Home Depot sells 38" x 40" sill-less shower pans https://www.homedepot.com/p/Tile-Red...-PVC/204361383 but I imagine that the ease/difficulty of retrofitting one of these depends on where your current shower is located. If on a slab, this might be pretty difficult. But if on a second floor or on a main floor over a basement/crawlspace, it should be doable, with some effort. For the surround, I'm pretty sure there are 40x40 (or thereabouts) standard surrounds available, or you could have a tile guy build one to fit, as @roger wiegand suggested.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

A good tile guy could resolve the issue and he would use a non-glazed tile that would be slip free on the floor. I used such tile in our bathroom as I have balance issues and slipping is a problem.

[Tom M King]

I'd build it in place, like I did for this one, that replaced a green fiberglass bathtub. At 40" wide, you can get by without any threshold. The floor just needs to drain all the water quickly. To drain like that, the floor doesn't have to have a lot of slope, but the less slope it has, the more perfect the floor has to be to the drain.

The picture with the tools is before grout. It shows one of the cheap, cut to needed length, plastic levels I was just talking about in another thread. Several were required to lay a perfect, low sloped floor.

Sorry the pictures are all sideways phone pics.

[Doug Dawson]

I have trouble getting into our shower. I'm handicapped. The 4" step is too high for me to negotiate. I would like to get a new shower that I don't have to lift my leg to step into. The problem is that the present shower fits into an area that is only 40" x 40". When I look for accessible showers it seems like they are mostly 40"x60". The bathroom is too small for such a shower. If you know of any manufacturers that make compact showers that would fit this space I would sure like to know where I could get one. Thanks.

I’m not a tile guy, but I deal with this stuff, and aside from access issues the priority should be having a bench in there.

[Bill Dufour]

My moms shower at the old folks home had a rubber fin/dam glued to the floor. it stuck up maybe 1/2" to keep water in. Shower curtain had to hang almost to the floor to contain splashes. You could easily drive a wheel chair over it. it was supposed to last 3-5 years.
Grab bars make nice towel racks and latter they can be used for grab bars as we age.
My shower has pebble floor which seems grippy to the toes when wet. No idea if I am suposeed to seal the grout.
Bill D

[Ole Anderson]

Several solutions here. I'm not a PC kind of guy, (well, maybe I am, just disagreeing how far overboard we have gotten) but for some reason when dealing with issues like this I prefer to refer to the accommodation as being barrier free rather than to the user as being handicapped. For some reason that term seems a bit demeaning to me. Apparently the proper term is 'person with a disability' when speaking of the user. Maybe from my civil engineering years reviewing site plans for a municipality for ADA compliance.

[Ron Selzer]

appreciate this discussion as it now applies more and more to me.
bench definitely will go in the next shower along grab bars
we are kicking around a room addition, master bedroom suite 20x20 to 20x30 using an existing bedroom as entry/bathroom sometime soon probably 3-5 yrs
big plus would be the full basement add to workshop with outside entrance.
Just need to see if I can work long enough to pay for it and if granddaughter moves back in.
Otherwise existing master bathroom gets redone
Ron

[Tom M King]

I've built showers with built-in seats, but after dealing with my soon to be 105 year old Mother, who is partially paralyzed from a stroke, and living with us, we get by easier with a movable seat. They make some nice, study such seats.

Our shower is 4x6, with no threshold, and we get by fine with it. The bathroom floor is tile too, so if a little water ends up on it, so what. I've seen those collapsible, stick-on thresholds, like at the Assisted Living places my Mother used to live in, but so far, we haven't felt the need for them. I wouldn't build one to start with, with any kind of threshold. You can get the stick-on one later, if you find the need.

We don't have any even small ones between rooms, either.

[James Spillman]

I'm going to have a bathroom contractor come over and give an estimate for what can be done. Unfortunately, work can't begin until September. I hope there are ways to speed up the process.

[Gary Ragatz]

I'm going to have a bathroom contractor come over and give an estimate for what can be done. Unfortunately, work can't begin until September. I hope there are ways to speed up the process.

In the interim, I wonder if there might be a way to create a ramp or maybe a shorter step on either side of the current sill to make it more manageable?

[James Spillman]

Gary, I have a small ramp I've been using and it certainly helps. Part of the problem is the walls of the shower are so flimsy. Grab bars can't be added to them. Because of my balance problems I need something solid to hang onto and the walls of the shower don't give me a lot of confidence.

[Kev Williams]

Behind one or more of those flimsy shower walls should be some wood holding up the rest of the house that some grab bars can be attached to...?

[Jim Matthews]

The Schluter company has this covered. You're not the first to need this, and won't be the last.

Beef up your handrail supports, inside the enclosure while you're at it.

https://www.schluter.com/schluter-us...rbless-showers